Padraic Colum
| birth_place = Columbkille, County Longford, Ireland | death_date = January | death_place = Enfield, Connecticut, United States | nationality = United Kingdom, Irish | ethnicity = Irish | alma_mater = University College Dublin | education = | spouse = | partner = | children = | relations = | period = 1902–58 | genre = | ploys = | debut_works = | notable_works = The Saxon Shillin', The King of Ireland's Son | magnum_opus = | collaborator = | influences = | influenced = | awards = }} Padraic Colum (8 December 1881 - 11 January 1972) was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, children's author and collector of folklore. He was one of the leading figures of the Celtic Revival. Life Youth Colum was born Patrick Collumb in a County Longford workhouse, where his father worked. He was the first of eight children born to Patrick and Susan Collumb.Biodata When the father lost his job in 1889, he moved to the United States to participate in the Colorado gold rush. Padraic and his mother and siblings remained in Ireland. When the father returned in 1892, the family moved to Glasthule, near Dublin, where his father was employed as Assistant Manager at Sandycove and Glasthule railway station. His son attended the local national school. When Susan Collumb died in 1897, the family was temporarily split up. Padraic (as he would be known) and one brother remained in Dublin, while their father and remaining children moved back to Longford. Colum finished school the following year and at the age of seventeen, he passed an exam for and was awarded a clerkship in the Irish Railway Clearing House. He stayed in this job until 1903. During this period, Colum started to write and met a number of the leading Irish writers of the time, including W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and Æ. He also joined the Gaelic League and was a member of the first board of the Abbey Theatre. He became a regular user of the National Library of Ireland, where he met James Joyce and the two became lifelong friends .During the riots caused by the Abbey Theatre's production of The Playboy of the Western World, Colum, with Arthur Griffith, was the leader of those inciting the protests, which, as he later remarked, cost him his friendship with Yeats. He collected Irish folk songs, including the famous She Moved Through the Fair, for which Colum wrote most of the words, with the musicologist Herbert Hughes. He was awarded a five year scholarship to University College Dublin by a wealthy American benefactor, Thomas Kelly. Early poetry and plays Through his plays he became involved with the National Theatre Society and in the founding of the Abbey Theatre, writing several of its early productions. His play, Broken Sail(revised as The Fiddler's House) (1903) was performed by the Irish Literary Theatre. The Land (1905), was one of that theatre's first great public successes. He wrote another important play for the Abbey named Thomas Muskerry (1910). His earliest published poems appeared in The United Irishman, a paper edited by Arthur Griffith. His first book, Wild Earth (1907) collected many of these poems and was dedicated to Æ. He published several poems in Arthur Griffith's paper, The United Irishman this time, with The Poor Scholar bringing him to the attention of WB Yeats. He became a friend of Yeats and Lady Gregory. In 1908, he wrote an introduction to the Everyman's Library edition of Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination. In 1911, with Mary Gunning Maguire, a fellow student from UCD, and David Houston and Thomas MacDonagh, he founded the short-lived literary journal The Irish Review, which published work by Yeats, George Moore, Oliver St John Gogarty, and many other leading Revival figures. In 1912 he married Maguire, who was working at Patrick Pearse's experimental school, St Enda's, Rathfarnam, County Dublin. At first the couple lived in the Dublin suburb of Donnybrook, where they held a regular Tuesday literary salon. They then moved to Howth, a small fishing village just to the north of the capital. In 1914, they traveled to the USA for what was intended to be a visit of a few months but lasted eight years. Later life and work In America, Colum took up children's writing and published a number of collections of stories for children, beginning with The King of Ireland's Son (1916). This book came about when Colum started translating an Irish folk tale from Gaelic because he did not want to forget the language; After it was published in the New York Tribune, Hungarian Illustrator Willy Pógany suggested the possibility of a book collaboration, so Colum wove the folktale into a long, epic story. Three of his books for children were awarded retrospective citations for the Newbery Honor. A contract for children's literature with Macmillan Publishers made him financially secure for the rest of his life. Some other books he wrote are The Adventure of Odysseus (1918) and The Children of Odin (1920). These works are important for bringing classical literature to children. In 1922 he was commissioned to write versions of Hawaiian folklore for young people. This resulted in the publication of three volumes of his versions of tales from the island. First editions of this work were presented to US president Barack Obama by Taoiseach Enda Kenny on the occasion of his visit to Dublin, Ireland on 23 May 2011. Colum also started writing novels. These include Castle Conquer (1923) and The Flying Swans (1937). The Columns spent the years from 1930 to 1933 living in Paris and Nice, where Padraic renewed his friendship with James Joyce and became involved in the transcription of Finnegans Wake. After their time in France, the couple moved to New York City, where they both did some teaching at Columbia University and CCNY. Colum was a prolific author and published a total of 61 books, not counting his plays. He adopted the form of Noh drama in his later plays. Molly died in 1957 and Pádraic finished Our Friend James Joyce, which they had worked on together before her death. It was published in 1958. Colum divided his later years between the United States and Ireland. In 1961 the Catholic Library Association awarded him the Regina Medal. He died in Enfield, Connecticut, aged 90, and was buried in St. Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton. Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest the last name was the same as the word column. "In my first name, the first a'' has the sound of ''au. The ordinary pronunciation in Irish is pau'drig." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.) Recognition He was awarded a prize by Cumann na nGaedheal for his anti-enlistment play, The Saxon Shillin'. Publications Poetry *''Wild Earth: A book of verse. Dublin, Maunsel, 1907. *Wild Earth, and other poems. Dublin: Maunsel, 1916; New York: Holt, 1916. *Dramatic Legends, and other poems. London & New York: Macmillan, 1922. *''The Road Round Ireland. New York: Macmillan, 1926. *''Creatures'' (illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff). New York: Macmillan, 1927. *''Poems''. London & New York: Macmillan, 1932. *''The Story of Lowry Maen'' (epic). New York: Macmillan, 1937. *''The Collected Poems of Padraic Colum'' (edited by Constantine Peter Curran & John L Sweeney). Old Greenwich, CT: Devin-Adair, 1953. *''Ten Poems''. Dublin: Dolmen, 1957. *''Images of Departure''. Dublin: Dolmen, 1968. *''Selected Poems of Padraic Colum'' (edited by Sanford Sternlicht). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1989. Plays *''The Desert: A play in three acts. Dublin: Devereaux, Newth, 1912. *Three Plays: The fiddlers' house, The land, Thomas Muskerry. Boston: Little, Brown, 1916; Dublin: Maunsel, 1917. *Mogu, the Wanderer; or, The desert: A fantastic comedy in three acts. Boston: Little, Brown, 1917. *''Balloon: A comedy in four acts (illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff). New York: Macmillan, 1929. *''Selected Plays of Padraic Colum'' (edited by Sanford Sternlicht). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1986. Novels *''Castle Conquer''. London & New York: Macmillan, 1923. *''The Flying Swans''. New York: Crown, 1957; Dublin: A. Figgis, 1969. Short fiction *''Studies. Dublin: Maunsel, 1907. *At the Gateways of the Day. New Haven, CT: Hawaiian Legend & Folklore Commission / Yale University Press, 1924. *''Orpheus: Myths of the world (illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff). New York: Macmillan, 1930. *''Legends of Hawaii''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1937. *''Selected Short Stories of Padraic Colum'' (edited by Sanford Sternlicht). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1985. Non-fiction *''My Irish Year. London: Mills, & Boon, 1912; New York: J. Pott, 1912. *''A Half-Day's Ride; or, Estates in Corsica (essays). New York: Macmillan, 1923. *''Crossroads in Ireland''. New York: Macmillan, 1930. *''Our Friend, James Joyce'' (with Mary Colum). Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1958; London: Gollancz, 1958. *''Ourselves Alone! The story of Arthur Griffith and the Irish Free State''. New York: Crown, 1959. Juvenile *''A Boy in Eirinn. New York: Dutton, 1913. *The King of Ireland's Son'' (illustrated by Willy Pogány). New York: Macmillan, 1916; New York: Holt, 1916; London: George G. Harrap, 1920. *''The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said'' (illustrated by Dugald Stewart Walker). New York: Macmillan, 1918. *''The Children's Homer: The adventures of Odysseus, and the tale of Troy'' (illustrated by Willy Pogány). New York: Macmillan, 1918. *''The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes'' (illustrated by Dugald Stewart Walker). New York: Macmillan, 1919. *''Children of Odin: The book of northern myths'' (illustrated by Willy Pogány). New York: Macmillan, 1920 **also published as Nordic Gods and Heroes. New York: Dover, 1969. *''The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter. New York: Macmillan, 1920. *The Golden Fleece, and the heroes who lived Before Achilles'' (illustrated by Willy Pogány). New York: Macmillan, 1921. *''The Children Who Followed the Piper'' (illustrated by Dugald Stewart Walker). New York: Macmillan, 1922. *''The Six Who Were Left in a Shoe'' (illustrated by Dugald Stewart Walker). New York: Macmillan, 1923 ** (illustrated by Joseph Schindelman). New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. *''The Arabian Nights: Tales of wonder and magnificence'' (illustrated by Eric Pape). New York: Macmillan, 1923 **(illustrated by Lynd Ward). New York: Macmillan, 1963. *''The Peep-Show Man'' (illustrated by Lois Lensky). New York: Macmillan, 1924. *''The Island of the Mighty: Being the hero-stories of celtic Britain'' (illustrated by Wilfred Jones). New York: Macmillan, 1924. **also published as The Story of King Arthur, and other celtic heroes. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2005. *''The Forge in the Forest''. New York: Macmillan, 1925. *''The Voyagers: Being legends and romances of Atlantic discovery'' (illustrated by Wilfred Jones). New York: Macmillan, 1925. *''The Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of my own countryside'' (illustrated by Jack Yeats). New York: Macmillan, 1933. *''The Frenzied Prince: Being heroic stories of ancient Ireland'' (illustrated by Willy Pogány). Philadelphia: David McKay, 1943. *''The Stone of Victory, and other tales'' (illustrated by Judith Gwyn-Browne). New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966. Edited *''Poems of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood'' (edited with Edward J. O'Brien). Boston: Small, Maynard, 1916. *''An Anthology of Irish Verse: The poetry of Ireland from mythological times to the present.'' New York: Boni & Liveright, 1922. *''A Treasury of Irish Folklore: The stories, traditions, legends, humor, wisdom, ballads, and songs of the Irish people''. New York: Crown, 1954. *''The Poems of Samuel Ferguson'' (edited & introduction by Padraic Colum). Dublin: Allen Figgis, 1963.Search results = au:Samuel Ferguson, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Aug. 11, 2013. *''Roofs of Gold: Poems to read aloud''. New York: Macmillan, 1964. Anthologized *5 poems ("'I shall not die for you'," "An Idyll," "Christ the Comrade," "Arab Songs" (I) & (II)))in Eyes of Youth: A book of verse. London: Herbert & Daniel, 1911. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Padriac Colum, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, June 8, 2014. Audio / video * Padraic Colum Reading His Irish Tales and Poems (Album). New York: Folkways Records, 1965. See also * List of Irish poets References *Bowen, Zack. Padraic Colum. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970. *Denson, Alan. "Padraic Colum: An Appreciation with a Checklist of His Publications." The Dublin Magazine 6 (Spring 1967): 50-67. *Sternlicht, Sanford. Padraic Colum. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985. * *Igoe, Vivien. A Literary Guide to Dublin. ISBN 0-413-69120-9 Notes External links ;Poems * Padraic Colum in The New Poetry: An Anthology: "Polonius and the Ballad Singers," "The Sea Bird to the Wave" "Old Men Complaining" *Padraic Colum in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "Three Irish Spinning Songs," "The Sea Bird to the Wave," "The Wayfarer," "Polonius and the Ballad Singers," "To Any Poet," "The Bison," "The Vultures," "The Wanderers," "Swift's Pastoral" * Padraic Colum at the Poetry Foundation. * Padraic Colum at PoemHunter (106 poems). ;Books * *Padraic Colum at the Online Books Page ;Audio/video *Padraic Colum poems at YouTube *[http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=1680/ Padraic Colum Reading His Irish Tales and Poems] - Album Details at Smithsonian Folkways ;About *Padraic Collum 1881-1972 - short biography at Ireland's Eye *Padraic Colum facts at Your Dictionary *Padraic Colum at NNDB ;Etc. *"Padraic Colum Papers ", Special Collections, University of Delaware Library * Category:Burials at St. Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton Category:1881 births Category:1972 deaths Category:Disease-related deaths in Connecticut Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:Irish dramatists and playwrights Category:Irish novelists Category:Irish Catholic poets Category:People from County Longford Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Roman Catholic writers Category:James Joyce Category:Newbery Honor winners Category:20th-century poets Category:Irish poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets